Opposition Takes Corruption Protest to Streets

India’s main opposition party protested in New Delhi to highlight the issue of government corruption, the telecom scandal and rising food prices.

The political tussle between India’s ruling Congress alliance and main opposition party over the telecom scandal that potentially cost the government $40 billion in lost revenue led to a washout of the entire winter session of parliament. Now that Parliament is no longer sitting, that tussle is taking place on the streets.

Thousands of people gathered in New Delhi Wednesday to participate in a protest rally organized by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its major allies to highlight the issue of government corruption.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the party would not relent in its demand for a joint parliamentary investigation into the flawed allotment of second generation telecom spectrum licenses in 2008 and other scams and added that the “protest rally is an attempt to keep the issue alive.”

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“The Prime Minister should face a parliamentary probe or quit,” Mr. Jaitley said, addressing the rally in New Delhi Wednesday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered to appear before a parliamentary committee that oversees spending and is looking into the spectrum allotment, but the government has not accepted the demand for joint parliamentary investigation.

The BJP is also distributing a brochure called, “2010: A Year of Scams” that aims to highlight the incompetence of the Congress-led government in dealing with corruption.

“Having got no justice in Parliament, we have decided to take our dissent to the streets, go to the people,” BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told India Real Time.

The BJP has also come under attack from leftist parties over its failure to punish chief minister of southern Karnataka state B.S. Yeddyurappa, whose family members are supposed to have benefited inappropriately in land deals involving government land. The party, nothing that Mr. Yeddyurappa denies the allegations, has previously said that it would not ask him to step down while an inquiry was still under way.

The BJP has planned 22 rallies across the country over the next two months. On Wednesday, there were huge traffic jams in New Delhi and thousands of policemen were deployed to ensure the rally passed off smoothly.

Some Indian media reports last week suggested that Karnataka was dropped from the list of states that are due to hold similar protests over the next two months, so as not to give the Congress any fodder. The BJP spokesman refused to confirm this but that didn’t stop Left politicians from commenting on it.

“This smacks of BJP”s double standards over corruption,” said D. Raja, leader of the Communist Party of India.

Political observers say that if the BJP is able to sustain its anti-corruption crusade into the new year, it could disrupt the budget session in February next year as well.

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